Even the most recognizable names in higher education struggle to strike a balance between ensuring great academics, thriving culture and student accomplishments. College web site Noodle took a different approach when naming the most influential college in each state.

Four measures were used to determine the top school, including search engine popularity, Twitter authority, number of affiliated Nobel Prize winners and the U.S. News rankings. The company aggregated data sources which it believes to be more neutral. This gives smaller private colleges a chance to rank among bigger public schools, leading to some surprising results.

Click through the slideshow above to see the most influential college in each state.